Train  Robberies 
Train  Robbers 


..AND., 


The  "Holdup"  Men 


ADDRESS  BY 


WILLIAM  A.   PINKERTON 


ANNUAL  CONVENTION 

International  Association  Chiefs  of  Police    | 

JAMESTOWN,    VA. 
1907 


Compliments  of 

WILLIAM  A.  PINKERTON,  ChicaRO, 


November,  1907 


r  A.  PiNKKKTON,  Clilcrtso  «ud  Now  York. 


^ 


^^^i 


pml^ertoq'^  platioiiL  Detective  J^gei 

Founded  by  Ai,i,an  Pinkerton,  1850. 

m  A.  PMERTON,  chic^o. 


]' 


GEO.  D.  BANGS, 

General  Manager,  New  Y 


^'  Principals. 
ALUNPIMEETON,  New  York. 

John  Cornish,  Manager,  Eastern  Division,  New  York. 
Edward  S.  Gaylor,  Manager,  Middle  Division,  Chicago. 
James  McPari^and,  Manager,  Western  Division,  Denver. 
J.  C.  Fraser,  Manager,  Pacific  Division,  San  Francisco. 


NEW  YORK, 

BOSTON, 

MONTREAI.,  Canada, 

BUFFAI.O, 

PHILADELPHIA, 

BALTIMORE, 

PITTSBURGH, 

CLEVELAND, 

CHICAGO, 

ST.  PAUL, 

KANSAS  CITY,      - 

ST.  LOUIS, 

CINCINNATI, 

DENVER, 

OMAHA, 

PORTLAND,  ORE., 

SEATTLE, 

SPOKANE, 

LOS  ANGELES, 

SAN  FRANCISCO,       - 


offices: 


57  Broadway 
30  Court  Street 
Merchants  Bank  Building 
Fidelity  Building 
1 1 2-1 16  North  Broad  Stree 
Continental  Building 
Machesney  Building 
American  Trust  Building 
201  Fifth  Avenue 
Manhattan  Building 
622  Main  Street 
Wainwright  Building 
Mercantile  Library  Bldg 
Opera  House  Block 
Brandeis  Building 
Marquam  Block 
Alaska  Building 
Rookery  Building 
Wilcox  Building 
Flood  Building 


ATTORNEYS   FOR  AGENCY. 

CRA  VA  TH.  HENDERSON  &  DeGERSDORFF,  NEW  YOM 


This  Agency  is  prepared  to  undertake  all  proper  Detective  bu 
entrusted  to  it  by  Railroad  or  other  Corporations,  Banks,  Merc 
Houses,  Attorneys  or  Private  Individuals.  It  does  not  operate  for  Re- 
or  engage  in  Divorce  Cases. 


Train  Robberies 
Train  Robbers 


.AND.. 


The  "Holdup"  Men 


ADDRESS  BY 

WILLIAM   A.    PINKERTON 


ANNUAL-  tOrN  VH-NttGN*  • 

International  Association  Chiefs  of  Police 

\^':aJ  AMES  TOWN,    V  A. 

1907 


Compliments  of  -;- 

WILLIAM  A.  PINKERTON,  Chicago, 
ROBERT  A.  PINKERTON,  Nc<C'V.,rk. 

X«)vi:mhi:k,  1907 

•  •..|,yilKlit.;.l  by  Wm.  a.  hii.I  KoitKur  A.  Pinkkkton,  CIiI.hko  hihI  X.w  York. 


Z'SC^ 


WILLIAM  A.  PINKKRTON. 


The  late  ROBERT  A  I'hNKERTOX. 


ERETOFORE  my  addresses  have  been  upon  sub- 
jects with  which  most  of  us  are  familiar  and,  while 
I  know  there  are  among  those  present,  members 
of  this  Association  who  have  had  more  or  less  t(3 
do  with  the  apprehension  of  the  train  robber  or  ''hold-up" 
criminal,  a  product  we  have  that  no  other  country  has  ex- 
cept as  our  fugitives ;  I  believe  some  reminiscences  of 
these  outlaws  will  be  of  interest. 

As  the  detective  agents  throughout  the  United  States  of 
many  railroad,  express  and  stage  companies  and  of  the 
American  Bankers'  Association,  and  co-operating  with  po- 
lice officials,  United  States  marshals,  sheriffs,  railroads  de- 
tectives and  various  other  law  enforcement  authorities,  for 
over  fifty  years  our  agency  has  been, engaged  investigating 
many  of  the  robberies  of  railroad  trains,  banks  and  stages 
by  this  desperate  robber ;  my  father,  the  late  Allan  Pinker- 
ton,  my  brother  Robert  and  I,  often  in  these  years  person- 
ally taking  part  in  running  down  this  now  almost  extinct 
outlaw.  It  is  somewhat  remarkable  as  will  be  noted 
throughout  my  talk,  that  in  many  instances  brothers  were 
members  of  individual  bands,  notably  the  Reno  brothers, 
John,  Frank,  Sim  and  Bill ;  the  Reitenhouse  brothers ;  the 
Miles  brothers,  James  K.  and  Joe,  all  of  Indiana;  the 
Farrington  brothers.  Levy  and  Hillary,  of  West  Tennes- 
see; the  James  brothers,  Frank  and  Jesse;  the  Younger 
brothers.  Cole,  Jim,  John  and  Bob;  the  Logan  brothers, 
Harvey  and  Lonny;  the  Collins  brothers,  part  of  the  Sam 
Bass  gang,   Joel,   \\'illiam  and   Albert;   Bud   and   William 


Mc  Daniels,  part  of  the  Jesse  James  gang;  the  Dalton 
brothers,  Bill,  Bob,  Emmett  and  Gratton  of  Kansas;  the 
Burrows  brothers.  Rube  and  Jim  of  Alabama;  the  Sontag 
brothers,  John  and  George  of  Minnesota ;  the  Gates  brothers 
of  California;  the  Jones  brothers;  the  McCarthy  brothers, 
Tom  and  Bill  of  Colorado ;  the  Cook  brothers,  Bill  and 
Jim  of  Arkansas,  who  were  part  of  the  Dalton  gang  and 
the  Carver  and  Kilpatrick  brothers  of  Texas. 

The  "hold-up"  robber  originated  among  bad  men  of  the 
gold  mining  camps.  Unsuccessful  as  a  prospector,  too  lazy 
to  work,  and  with  enough  bravado  and  criminal  instinct 
to  commit  desperate  crimes,  he  first  robbed  prospectors 
and  miners  en  route  on  foot  to  stage  stations,  of  their  gold 
dust  and  nuggets,  becoming  bolder,  looting  stages  and 
eventually  after  the  railroads  were  built,  he  ''held-up"  rail- 
way trains  and  robbed  express  cars. 

W  c  also  find  them  from  the  'Vlare-devils"  of  the  Civil 
War,  those  from  the  Southwest  who  engaged  in  guerrilla 
warfare,  where,  as  the  pride  of  the  States  which  sent  them 
to  the  front  and,  because  of  their  ambuscades,  raids  and 
lawless  acts  during  the  war,  they  were  received  as  heroes 
when  they  returned  to  their  homes.  The  James  boys,  the 
A^oungers,  the  Renos,  the  Farringtons,  the  war  giving  them 
the  reckless  life  they  longed  for  and  experience  fitting  them 
for  the  life  of  crime  they  inaugurated  immediately  after. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  plains,  the  cowboy,  with  criminal 
inclination,  noted  for  deeds  of  daring,  began  his  career  by 
cattle   "rustling"   and   horse   stealing,   and   then   became   a 


M51577 


"hold-up"   of   stages   and   trains,   committing  the   most   of 
these  robberies  since  1875. 

Also  certain  sensational  newspapers  and  publishers  of 
"yellow"  covered  literature,  by  exploiting  and  extoling  the 
cowardly  crimes  of  these  outlaws  and  filling  the  youthful 
mind  with  a  desire  for  the  same  sort  of  notoriety  and  ad- 
venture are  responsible  for  many  imitators  of  the  "hold- 
up" robber. 

The  "hold-up"  man  operated  as  the  footpad  does  to-day,- 
concealed  in  ambush  awaiting  his  victim,  suddenly  pouncing 
upon  and  commanding  him  to  throw  up  his  hands, 
"covering"  him  by  thrusting  a  revolver  in  his  face,  then 
relieving  him  of  his  money  and  valuables.  Usually  the 
"hold-up"  man  to  avoid  identification  and  arrest,  covers  his 
face  below  the  eyes  with  a  triangular  cloth  or  pocket  hand- 
kerchief, tied  back  of  the  head,  wore  a  soft  hat  well  down 
over  his  eyes,  although  in  many  of  the  great  train  and  bank 
robberies  shortly  after  the  war,  no  masks  of  any  kind  were 
worn. 

The  average  train  robbery  band  formerly  consisted  of 
from  five  to  eight  men,  but  in  recent  years  successful  rob- 
beries have  been  committed  by  from  three  to  five  men  and 
in  a  few  instances  by  a  lone  individual. 

Usually  in  these  train  robberies,  one  member  of  the 
band,  with  red  lantern  or  flag,  at  a  lonely  spot  would  signal 
the  train  to  a  standstill,  or  one  or  two  would  board  the 
"blind  end"  of  a  baggage  or  express  car  and  nearing  the 
point  selected  for  the  robbery,  would  climb  over  the  tender 
into   the   locomotive,    "cover"   the    engineer    and    fireman. 


while  others  of  the  bandits  uncoupled  the  express  or  money 
car  and  forced  the  engineer  to  carry  them  a  mile  or  two 
distant,  where  the  cars  and  safes  would  be  forced  open 
with  dynamite.  Resistance  usually  resulted  in  the  death  of 
those  who  interfered.  Our  study  of  the  murders  com- 
mitted by  these  desperadoes  shows  fully  90  per  cent  to  be 
assassinations,  those  killed  generally  being  defenseless,  or 
the  outnumbering  desperadoes  by  pouncing  on  their  victims 
when  least  expected,  giving  them  no  chance  for  their  lives. 

Escapes  were  usually  made  with  horses  Ih  waiting,  in 
charge  of  a  confederate  at  the  place  of  the  robbery,  and 
often  with  relays  of  horses  previously  arranged,  for  cov- 
ering five  or  six  hundred  miles,  until  they  arrived  at  the;r 
homes  or  hiding  places. 

There  is  no  crime  in  America  so  hazardous  as 
"hold-up''  robbery.  Over  two-thirds  of  those  who 
have  been  engaged  in  these  crimes,  were  killed 
while  operating,  or  in  resisting  arrest,  or  from  their 
wounds,  lynched  by  posses,  or  as  is  known  "died  with 
their  boots  on,"  while  nearly  all  others  were  either  captured 
or  sentenced  to  long  terms  of  imprisonment  or  driven  from 
the  United  States,  becoming  exiles  in  distant  foreign  climes. 
Those  at  large  are  constantly  in  fear  of  arrest,  living  se- 
cluded lives,  and  risking  no  chances  of  discovery  by  com- 
municating with  friends. 

Shortly  after  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  there  was  an 
epidemic  of  train  robberies  in  Indiana,  especially  between 
Indianapolis  and  New  Albany  on  the  Jeffersonvilie  and 
Indianapolis   R.    R.,   now    part   of   the   Pennsylvania   Rail- 


way  System.  My  father,  representing  the  Adams  Express 
Company,  who  were  the  principal  losers  in  these  raids,  and 
who  had  determined  to  disband  this  ''hold-up"  band,  un- 
dertook this  difficult  task.  It  was  early  determined  that 
the  robberies  were  perpetrated  by  a  desperate  gang  who 
made  Seymour  and  the  adjacent  town  of  Rockford  tlieir 
i^eadquarters,  practically  under  the  leadership  of  the  Reno 
brothers,  whose  parents,  hard  working  and  respectable  had 
settled  on  an  Indiana  farm  years  before  and  raised  a  family 
of  five  boys,  John,  Clinton,  Sim,  Bill  and  Frank,  and  a  girl, 
Laura.  During  the  later  part  of  the  Civil  War  all  of  the 
brothers,  except  Clinton,  known  as  ''Honest  Reno,"  began 
criminal  careers  with  the  Reitenhouse  brothers.  Tame.;  K. 
and  Joe  and  Miles  and  John  Ogle,  counterfeiters,  and  Peter 
McCartney,  an  expert  safe  burglar,  all  of  whom,  as  bounty 
jumpers,  had  swindled  the  Government  out  of  large  sums 
of  money.  At  the  close  of  the  War,  the  Renos  and  their 
associates  had  returned  to  their  homes  at  Seymour,  In- 
diana, with  plenty  of  money,  dissipating,  gambling  and  in- 
dulging in  other  vicious  dissoluteness.  Other  younger  men 
in  their  neighborhood,  observing  these  reckless  expenditures, 
naturally  desired  to  likewise  acquire  money  quickly  and 
soon  with  the  Renos  and  their  confederates,  including  Albert 
Sparks,  Henry  Moore,  John  Gerrold  and  Thomas  Henry, 
formed  "hold-up"  bands  for  robbing  express  messengers 
on  railroads  near  Seymour.  Robbery  after  robbery  fol- 
lowed, arrests  were  numerous,  but  powerful  influences  and 
desperate  intimidations  by  the  criminals  and  their  friends 
made  their  conviction  practically  impossible.     Farmers  sup- 


po>e(l  to  be  inimical  to  the  band  were  terrorized,  by  their 
cattle  l)cing  poisoned  or  maimed  and  their  homes  and  barns 
burned  until  a  reign  of  terror  actually  existed  all  over 
Southern  Indiana. 

The  Renos  met  their  first  Waterloo  during  the  Winter  of 
1867  and  1868.  John  Reno  had  robbed  the  county  treasur- 
er's office  at  Gallatin,  Mo.,  of  $20,000  and  returned  to 
Seymour,  Ind.,  the  stronghold  of  his  criminal  brothers,  and 
where  he  considered  he  was  safe.  But  on  plans  arranged 
by  my  father  for  a  certain  day,  John  Reno  was  decoyed  by 
one  of  our  secret  operatives  to  the  Seymour  depot  for  the 
arrival  of  a  through  train,  on  which  a  Missouri  Sheriff 
with  six  deputies  arrived  and  pounced  upon  Reno  and  pulled 
him  aboard.  There  was  no  time  for  Reno's  usual  savior, 
the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  or  any  other  legal  technicality  to 
prevent  his  removal ;  a  good  friend  had  looked  after  the 
telegraph  wires  so  that  no  detaining  despatches  could  head 
off  the  train  and  John  Reno  was  landed  over  the  Indiana 
line  into  Jail  at  Gallatin,  Mo.,  where  he  was  soon  convicted 
and  sentenced  to  20  years  in  the  Missouri  Penitentiary, 
serving  every  day  of  his  sentence. 

During  the  Winter  of  1868,  there  were  heavy  robberies 
of  safes  of  county  treasurers'  offices  in  Western  Iowa,  the 
last  occurring  at  Glenwood,  Mills  Co.,  Iowa,  when  $20,000 
was  stolen.  Our  investigations  had  determined  the  crim- 
inal- to  be  Frank  Reno,  Al  Sparks,  Miles  Ogle  and  Mike 
J\<»,i;cr-,  the  last  named  a  wealthy  land  owner  of  Council 
Bluffs,  a  pillar  of  the  Methodist  Church  and  highly  respected 
in  his  community.     Following  a  robbery  at  Magnolia,  Har 


13 


risonville,  we  had  traced  the  robbers  to  Council  Bhiffs, 
where  a  watch  on  Rogers'  house  resulted  in  the  capture,  the 
day  after  the  Glenwood  robbery  of  the  criminals  named, 
the  proceeds  of  the  raid  still  in  their  possession,  they  quickly 
shoved  it  into  a  kitchen  stove,  from  which  we  recovered  it 
partially  burned.  They  were  all  taken  to  Glenwood,  Iowa, 
but  on  April  i,  1868,  broke  jail  and  fled,  Frank  Reno  going 
to  Windsor,  Canada,  where  he  became  associated  with 
Charles  Anderson,  a  clever  burglar  and  general  criminal 
and  with  him  eventually  returned  to  Seymour. 

Shortly  after  the  Glenwod  robbery.  Walker  Hammond, 
afterwards  noted  as  a  counterfeiter,  and  Mike  Colleran,  of 
Seymour,  "held-up"  an  express  messenger  on  a  Jefferson- 
ville  railroad  train,  robbing  him  of  $15,000  only  to  be  "held- 
up"  by  the  Reno  brothers  and  relieved  of  their  plunder. 
Hammond  and  Colleran  were  convicted  and  sentenced  to 
long  terms  of  imprisonment  in  the  Indiana  State  Peniten- 
tiary. 

Subsequently  Frank,  Sim  and  Billy  Reno,  with  Aliles 
Ogle  and  Charles  Anderson,  heavily  armed,  ''held-up"  a 
train  near  Seymour,  threw  the  messenger  into  a  ditch  from 
the  moving  train  and  robbed  the  Adams  Express  Company's 
safe  of  $90,000.  For  this  crime,  Anderson  and  Frank 
Reno  were  arrested  at  Windsor,  Canada,  and  after  a  contest 
lasting  all  Summer,  were  remanded  for  extradition  and  later 
in  charge  of  Pinkerton  detectives  were  lodged  in  the  New 
Albany,  Ind.,  jail.  Meanwhile,  Sim  and  Billy  Reno  were 
arrested  in  Indianapolis,  Ind.,  and  also  lodged  in  the  same 
jail.     Henry  Moore,  Gerrold  and  Sparks  and  an  unknown 


14 


MILES  OGLE. 
One  of  the  first  train  robbers.      Member  Reno  Band  "  Hold  ups.' 


15 


man  who  "held-np"  and  robbed  the  J.  ]\I.  &  I.  R.  R.  had  been 
arrested  at  Seymour,  and  while  enroute  to  the  Brown- 
stone  jail  were  forcibly  taken  from  their  escorts  and  lynched 
by  excited  citizens  who  had  become  incensed  at  the  outrages 
the  Renos  and  their  associates  were  committing. 

This  was  followed  by  a  Vigilance  Committee,  supposed 
to  have  come  from  the  neighborhood  of  Seymour,  visiting 
the  New  Albany  jail,  battering  in  the  doors,  over-powering 
the  guards  and  hanging  Frank,  Sim  and  Billy  Reno  and 
Charles  Anderson  in  the  jail  corridor.  Notices  were  also 
posted  in  public  places  about  Seymour,  naming  25  people 
supposed  to  be  affiliated  with  the  Renos  and  warning  them 
that  if  any  house,  cattle  or  other  property  was  destroyed, 
the  Committee  would  ''meet"  but  once  more  to  clean 
out  the  friends  of  the  Renos  remaining  in  the  community. 
These  drastic,  though  apparently  necessary  measures 
stopped  train  robbery  in  Southern  Indiana;  there  has  not 
been  a  train  robbery  there  since  and  the  identity  of  the 
Vigilantes  is  still  a  secret. 


The  State  of  Missouri  has  probably  produced  more  train 
robbers  than  any  other  state  in  the  Union  and  of  whom  the 
James  brothers  were  the  most  desperate  and  vicious. 

Among  the  Kentuckians  who  settled  in  Clay  County, 
Mo.,  before  the  War  were  Doctor  and  Mrs.  Samuels  and 
their  sons,  Frank  and  Jesse  James,  sons  of  Mrs.  Samuels' 
previous  marriage.  When  the  War  broke  out,  the  brothers 
joined  the  Quantrell  band  in  their  guerrilla  warfare.    After 


17 


the  War  the  James  boys,  under  the  leadership  of  Bill  An- 
derson and  operating  with  Cole,  Jim,  John  and  Bob  Young- 
er, Clell  and  John  Miller,  Charles  Pitts,  the  Tompkins 
brothers,  Jim  Cummings,  Dick  Liddell,  and  other  members 
of  Ouantreirs  band,  began  prowling  through  West  and 
Southwest  Missouri  and  Eastern  Kansas,  looking  for  what 
spoils  they  could  get  and  for  years  committed  a  series  of 
the  most  despicable  crimes  of  that  period  in  Missouri,  Ken- 
tucky and  Minnesota,  "holding-up"  banks  in  the  day  time, 
robbing  trains  at  night,  murdering  respectable  citizens  who 
resisted  them  and  killing  officers  who  attempted  their  ar- 
rest. 

The  published  reports  of  the  exploits  of  this  band  had 
more  to  do  with  the  making  of  bad  men  in  the  West  than 
anything  which  occurred  before  they  began  operating  or 
since. 

At  the  time  Jesse  James  was  killed  and  his  brother  sur- 
rendered the  statement  was  made  that  neither  was  ever 
arrested  or  captured  by  officers,  State  or  Federal,  but  Judge 
Philander  Lucas  of  Liberty,  Mo.,  states  that  during  1865- 
1866,  about  eleven  o'clock  one  morning,  the  James  boys, 
with  Clell  Miller,  Jim  Poole  and  George  White,  rode  into 
Liberty,  firing  off  their  revolvers  and  acting  like  a  lot  of 
Indians ;  that  they  entered  Meffert's  saloon,  had  drinks,  and 
as  they  left  the  saloon  Sheriff  Rickards  arrested  and  dis- 
armed the  James  boys,  marched  them  into  the  Court  House, 
arraigned  them  before  him  and  that  he  committed  them  to 
the  County  jail.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  were  then  no 
charges  against  them. 


iS 


3  K 

?   V. 


5o 
=  Z 


19 


As  a  rule  the  James  and  Younger  brothers  and  their  as- 
sociates, after  each  crime,  would  return  tg  their  home. 
Clay  County,  Mo.,  where  they  were  virtually  immune  from 
arrest,  either  through  fear  of  them  by  the  respectable  ele- 
ment or  through  the  friendly  aid  they  received  from  their 
admirers. 

The  first  of  their  robberies  we  were  retained  to  investi- 
gate was  that  of  June  3,  1871,  when  the  James  and  Younger 
brothers  visited  Corydon,  Wayne  County,  Iowa,  intend- 
ing to  rob  the  county  treasurer  of  recently  collected  taxes. 
Jesse  James  entered  the  treasurer's  office  offering  a  one 
hundred  dollar  bill  for  change,  but  the  clerk  informed  him 
of  the  absence  of  the  county  treasurer,  who  held  the  com- 
bination of  the  locked  safe,  but  suggested  that  a  new  bank 
across  the  square,  opened  that  day  and  which  had  one-halt 
of  its  capital  on  deposit,  might  accommodate  him,  where- 
upon Jesse  consulted  with  his  associates  and  the  robbery  of 
the  new  bank  was  agreed  upon.  On  Jesse  offering  the  one 
hundred  dollar  bill,  the  cashier  opened  the  safe  for  the 
change,  only  on  turning  around  to  look  into  the  muzzle  of 
two  revolvers.  Jesse's  associates  who  had  meanwhile  en- 
tered the  bank,  then  forced  the  president  and  cashier  into 
a^back  room,  emptied  the  contents  of  the  safe,  about  fifteen 
thousand  dollars  into  saddle  bags,  relieved  a  new  depositor, 
a  negro  preacher,  who  had  entered,  of  his  handful  of  money, 
then  mounting  their  horses  fled  from  the  town,  passing  on 
their  way  a  public  meeting,  in  the  outskirts,  where  a  site 
for  a  new   school  house   was  beinj^-  discussed,   and   which 


5!  "^ 

2   W 


accounted  for  the  county  trea>urcr's  absence  from  his  office, 
and  saved  his  safe  from  being  plundered. 

As  the  bandits  rode  by  the  meeting  they  fired,  in  the 
air,  a  fusillade  from  their  revolvers  and  rifles,  at  the  same 
time  informing  the  gathering  of  the  robbery  of  the  bank 
and  advising  that  they  return  to  town  and  start  a  new  bank. 

Robert  Pinkerton,  then  a  young  man,  with  a  posse 
traced  the  outlaws  through  the  lower  counties  of  Iowa.  Then 
with  an  Iowa  Sheriff,  the  balance  of  the  posse  having  with- 
drawn, continued  into  Missouri  as  far  as  Cameron  Junction, 
a  cross  road  station,  where  the  Sheriff  left  for  additional 
help;  but  Robert  Pinkerton  continued  following  the  trail  to 
the  Missouri  River  where  the  band  separated,  some  cross- 
ing at  Sibley  Ferry,  others  at  Blue  Mill  Ferry,  all  meeting 
afterwards  at  the  Old  Blufe  Mill,  -from  which  point  they 
continued  South,  evidently  making  towards  the  James  home 
in  Clay  County.  Here,  Robert  Pinkerton,  recognizing  the 
folly  of  continuing  alone  withdrew. 

On  July  20,  1873,  the  James  brothers  committed  their 
first  train  "hold-up"  robbery  on  the  Chicago,  Rock  Island 
&  Pacific  R.  R.,  wrecking  the  train  fifteen  miles  east  of 
Council  1  fluffs,  Iowa,  murdered  the  unarmed  engineer, 
wounded  the  fireman,  injured  passengers  and  robbed  the  ex- 
press car  of  a  large  amount  of  money. 

January  31,  1874,  the  James  brothers  aided  by  the 
Younger  brothers,  Clcll  ^filler  and  Jim  Cummings,  com- 
mitted their  second  train  "hold-up"  robbery,  this,  on  the 
Iron  ^Mountain  Roa^l  ai  <  ;a<Miil],  Mo.,  fiaggiwg  the  train  to 
a  standstill  and  "Ivjld-up"  and  robbing  it  of  $I0,000.    Jn 


CLHLl.  MILLHK  aiul  lilLL  CIIADWlvLL. 

[James  band.] 

Killed  by  posse  after  Northficld,  Minn,  bank  raid. 


23 


the  investigation  of  this  robbery  Joseph  W.  Witcher,  one 
of  our  detectives  from  Chicago,  on  March  lo,  1874,  was 
overpowered,  bound  with  ropes  and  put  on  a  horse,  Clell 
Miller  and  Jesse  James  taking  him  from  their  home  in  Clav 
County,  Mo.,  to  near  Independence,  Jackson  County,  Mo., 
where  they  assassinated  him,  leaving  his  body  at  the  cross- 
ing of  the  Deerington  and  Independence  road  where  the 
Iowa  Sheriff  left  Robert  Pinkerton  three  years  before. 

A  few  days  later  Louis  Lull,  a  former  captain  of  police 
in  Chicago,  but  then  in  our  employ,  in  company  with  an 
ex-Deputy  Sheriff  and  a  man  named  Daniels,  met  John  and 
Jirn  Younger  on  a  road  near  Montegaw  Springs,  St.  Clair 
County,  Mo.,  and  in  the  effort  to  arrest  them.  Lull  killed 
John  Younger,  but  was  himself  mortally  wounded,  dying 
six  weeks  later.  Daniels  was  killed  and  Jim  Younger  was 
seriously  wounded. 

The  James  brothers  band  also  committed  robberies  on 
the  Union  Pacific  R.  R.,  at  Munsey,  Kas.,  in  December, 
1875.  securing  $55,000,  also  on  the  Missouri  Pacific  R.  R. 
at  Otterville,  Mo.,  July  8,  1876,  securing  $[7,000,  and  when 
McDaniels,  one  of  the  band  being  arrested  with  part  of  the 
booty,  was  killed  in  an  attempt  to  escape. 


Their  next  serious  crime  was  in  Scptc]nl)cr,  1876,  when 
they  attempted  to  rob  a  1:)ank  at  Xorthfield,  Minn.,  and 
killed  the  cashier,  J.  L.  Haywood.  Citizens  of  the  town 
opened  fight  and  killed  P.ill  Chadwcll.  Clell  Miller  and 
Charlev   Pitt^.      1h>1)   and    |im    ^^ninq-cr   and    Jesse    James 


24 


25 


were  wounded.  Cole  Younger  picked  up  Bob  and  carried 
him  away  on  his  horse.  A  few  days  later.  Cole,  Jim  and 
Bob  Younger,  surrounded  in  a  swamp,  were  captured. 

Frank  James  managed  to  get  Jesse  into  Dakota  and 
thence  to  the  Missouri  River,  where  they  stole  a  skill  and 
made  their  escape. 

Cole,  Jim  and  Bob  Younger  were  sentenced  to  long 
terms  of  imprisonment  in  the  Shelwater,  Minn.,  State 
Prison. 

September  i6,  1899,  Bob  Younger  died  in  prison. 

July  10,  1901,  Cole  and  Jim  Younger  were  pardoned  by 
the  Minnesota  State  Board  of  Pardons.  October  18, 
1902,  Jim  Younger  committed  suicide  at  St.  Paul,  Minn. 

April  3,  1882,  Bob  Ford,  a  former  associate  of  the 
James  boys,  for  a  reward  of  $10,000  offered  by  Gov.  Crit- 
tendon  for  Jesse's  body  dead  or  alive,  killed  him  w^hile  he 
was  hanging  a  picture  in  his  home  at  St.  Joseph,  Mo.  Bob 
and  Charles  Ford  surrendered  themselves  for  this  crime  anvi 
were  convicted  and  sentenced  to  death,  but  pardoned  by 
Governor  Crittendon  and  paid  the  $10,000;  thus  to  Gover- 
nor Crittendon  is  due  the  final  disbanding  of  the  James 
brothers  band  of  outlaws  and  in  this  he  was  aided  by  Sherift* 
Timberlake  of  Clay  County  and  Commissioner  of  Police 
Craig  of  Kansas  City. 

Frank  James  afterwards  surrendered  to  the  Missouri 
authorities,  stood  trial,  and  w^as  acquitted  of  the  Gallatin, 
Mo.,  bank  robbery.  Governor  Crittendon  refused  to  sur- 
render  him   to   the   Minnesota   authorities,   and   he    subse- 


26 


quently  settled  in  Western  Missouri,  and  so  far  as  I  know, 
is  now  living  a  straightforward  life. 

Jesse  James  and  the  Youngers  are  all    buried    at    the 
scenes  of  their  boyhood  days  in  Western  Missouri. 


Charley  Bullard,  alias  *Tiano  Charley"  and  ''Ike"  Marsh, 
alias  "Big  Ike",  who  first  came  into  prominence  as  "hold- 
up" robbers,  have  had  rather  an  interesting  career. 

In  1869,  Bullard  and  Marsh  concealed  themselves  in  a 
Hudson  River  R.  R.  train  between  New  York  City  and 
Buffalo,  "held-up",  bound  and  gagged  the  messenger  of  the 
Merchants  Union  Express  Co.,  and  stole  one  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars. 

Bullard  and  Marsh  were  arrested  in  Canada,  extradited 
and  lodged  in  the  White  Plains,  N.  Y.,  jail  for  trial,  from 
which,  aided  by  ''Billy"  Forrester,  an  old-time  associate, 
they  escaped. 

November  20,  1869,  Bullard  and  Marsh  with  Adam 
Worth  and  "Bob"  Cochran,  stole  from  the  Boylston  Bank, 
Boston,  Mass.,  cash  and  securities,  valued  at  four  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  dollars  and  fled  to  Europe  with  theil 
plunder. 

At  the  Washington  Hotel,  Liverpool,  Bullard  met  and 
married  a  beautiful  bar  maid  named  Kittie  Flynn,  went  to 
Paris,  opened  the  famous  American  bar  at  Rue  Scribe, 
where  his  wife's  beauty  and  engaging  manners  attracted 
many   American   visitors  as  well  as  making  it  the   head- 


27 


quarters    of    American   gamblers    and    criminals   who    here 
planned  many  of  their  European  crimes. 

Bullard  was,  however,  eventually,  arrested  and  after  a 
sentence  of  one  year  in  Paris  for  keeping  a  gambling  house, 
returned  to  the  United  States,  was  arrested  in  New  York 
City  for  the  Boylston  Bank  robbery  and  sentenced  to  twentv 
years  in  the  State's  prison  at  Concord,  Mass.,  from  which 
he  escaped  September  13,  1878,  and  fled  to  Canada,  where 
he  was  arrested  for  a  safe  burglary  and  sentenced  to  five 
years  imprisonment  at  Kingston.  After  serving  this,  he 
went  abroad  and  with  Max  Shinburn,  the  notorious  bank 
burglar,  was  arrested  in  the  act  of  robbing  a  Bank  at  Vi\-- 
eres,  Belgium.  Bullard  was  sentenced  to  seventeen  years 
imprisonment,  in  the  Belgium  penitentiary,  where  he  died 
in  the  early  part  of  1890.  Bullard  was  well  educated,  spoke 
English,  French  and  German,  fluently ;  was  a  skillful  pianist, 
from  which  he  gained  the  sobriquet  of  'Tiano  Charley." 

After  the  Boylston  Bank  robbery,  "Ike"  Marsh  separ- 
ated from  Bullard  and  with  George  Mason  burglarized  the 
First  National  Bank  of  Wellsboro,  Pa.,  for  which  he  was 
arrested,  convicted  and  sentenced  to  seventeen  years 
imprisonment  in  the  Eastern  Penitentiary,  Philadelphia. 
While  there  he  became  a  stationary  engineer,  and  after  his 
release,  having  reformed,  followed  his  vocation  as  an  engi- 
neer in  Philadelphia,  and  is  still  so  employed  there. 


In   the   early  seventies.   Levy  and   Hillary    Farrington, 
from  near  Gilliam  Station,  West  Tennessee,  William  Taylor, 


2S 


\\  illiain  Barton,  formerly  a  railroad  brakeman  and  George 
Bertine,  all  from  A\'estern  Tennessee,  commenced  train 
*1iold-iip"  robberies  on  the  Nashville  and  Northwestern  and 
Mobile  and  Ohio  Railroads,  and  after  each  ''hold-up''  the 
only  trace  of  the  robbers  would  be  a  skiff,  left  by  the  bandits 
tloatini^- l)()ttnni  up  on  the  ^Mississippi. 

On  the  6th  of  October,  1871,  a  train  on  the  ■Mobile  and 
Ohio  R.  R.  at  Union  City,  Tenn.,  was  attacked,  the  guard 
and  messenger  overpowered  and  the  safe  of  the  Southern 
Express  Company  robbed  of  $20,000.  I  was  then  supervis- 
ing for  our  Agency,  all  train  robbery  cases,  and  with  Pat- 
rick Connell,  Special  Agent  of  the  Southern  Express  Co., 
and  an  assistant  named  Bedlow,  traced  the  men,  as  usual, 
to  the  Mississippi  River,  where  an  over-turned  skiff*  was 
found  and  trace  lost.  After  a  most  thorough  scouring  of 
the  country  and  up  and  down  the  Mississippi  River,  we 
learned  of  a  party  of  strange  men  in  a  swamp  near  Lester's 
Landing,  Tenn.,  where  we  subsequently  determined,  they,  to 
cover  their  real  business  of  train  robbery,  had  opened  a 
small  store.  This  we  surrounded  and  attacked ;  the  train 
robbers,  who  were  heavily  armed  resisting  and  in  the  re- 
sulting fight,  Henry  Bertine  was  killed  and  Hillary  Far- 
rington  and  William  Barton  escaped.  Hillary  Farrington, 
we  traced  to  Western  Missouri,  near  Vinita,  on  the  edge  ot 
Indian  Territory,  where  wdth  the  aid  of  a  deputy  sheriff 
and  some  residents  of  the  neighborhood,  we  surrounded  the 
house  in  which  he  was  secreted,  but  finally  had  i^  hie 
to  it  in  order  to  r]i<;]odge  and  arrest  him. 


29 


A  few  days  later  Levy  Farriiigton  was  arrested  near 
Farmington,  Ills.,  b}^  the  City  Marshal  and  Robert  A.  Pink- 
erton,  while  William  Taylor,  the  last  of  the  band,  was  ar- 
rested by  Patrick  Connell  and  myself  at  Real  Foot  Lake, 
Tenn.,  and  all  taken  to  Union  City,  Tenn.,  for  examination. 
When  Levy  Farrington  arrived  here  in  the  custody  of  Rob- 
ert A.  Pinkerton,  a  friend  named  Toler,  in  attempting  his 
rescue,  shot  and  killed  the  Assistant  City  Marshal  and 
seriously  wounded  a  railroad  watchman  at  Union  City. 
Toler  was  pursued  and  captured  and  a  Vigilance  Committee 
was  formed.  Recognizing  what  might  take  place,  we  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  Barton  and  Taylor  out  of  the  hotel  where 
they  were  confined  and  heavily  guarded,  to  the  Memphis, 
Tenn.,  jail,  but  being  unable  to  get  the  other  prisoners  away, 
the  Vigilance  Committee  overpowered  the  local  officers  who 
were  guarding  them  and  that  night  shot  and  killed  Levy 
Farrington  and  lynched  Toler. 

Taylor  and  Barton  afterwards  pleaded  guilty  to  train 
robbery  and  were  sentenced  to  long  terms  in  the  State 
Prison  at  Nashville,  Tenn. 


For  very  many  years  after  train  robbery  in  West  Ten- 
nessee was  an  unknown  crime. 

In  1877,  Sam  Bass,  Frank  Hulfish,  William  Nixon, 
Henry  Underwood  and  James  Berry,  a  gang  of  cowboys, 
under  the  leadership  of  Joel  Collins,  near  Big  Springs,  Neb., 
"held-up"  a  Union  Pacific  R.  R.  train,  stealing  $60,000  in 
gold,  with  which  they  started  on  horseback  for  Texas.  Joel 
Collins,  son  of  a  preacher,  came  from  near  Dallas,  Texas, 


30 


aii<l  was  one  of  four  brothers,  all  of  whom  went  wrong  ex- 
cept Joe,  who  was  a  prominent  respectable  cattleman.  Col- 
lins and  Hulfish,  ten  days  after  the  robbery  near  Ellsworth, 
Kas.,  and  resisting  arrest  by  United  States  troops  were  shot 
and  killed  :  the  money  they  carf  ied  with  them  was  recovered. 
About  two  weeks  later  Jim  Berry,  who  was  traced  to  ;i 
farm  near  Mexico,  Mo.,  was  also  shot  and  killed  resisting 
arrest.  Bass,  Nixon  and  Underwood  escaped,  Nixon  sail- 
ing from  New^  Orleans,  La.,  to  Spanish  Honduras,  where  he 
is  still  a  fugutive  and  where  he  invested  his  share  of  the 
robbery,  $10,000  gold,  in  business. 

We  located  and  caused  the  arrest  of  Henry  Underwood 
and  returned  him  to  Kearney,  Neb.,  where  he  escaped  from 
jail  and  was  last  heard  from  as  in  the  Indiana  State  Prison. 

Sam  Bass  returned  to  Denton  Co.,  Tex.,  where  he  has 
been  a  deputy  Sheriff,  and  had  many  friends.  He  soon 
organized  another  band  of  train  robbers,  consisting  of  Wil- 
liam and  Albert  Collins,  brothers  of  Joel,  James  Pikes,  Joe 
Herndon,  of  the  Collins  homestead,  Henry  Jackson  and 
''Arkansas  Johnson."  They  attacked  the  Southern  Express 
'  the  Texas  and  Pacific  R.  R.  and  the  Houston  and 

...  Central  R.  R.  and  in  the  fall  of  1877  committed  a 
r  ^hhery  at  AFcsquit,  near  Dallas,  Texas.  We  co-operated 
witli  the  local  authorities  and  Texas  rangers,  resulting  in 
t'i'"  :n  iv^t  of  AX'illiam  Collins,  Pikes  and  Herndon,  the  latter 
convicted  at  Tyler,  Texas,  and  sentenced  to  life 
iiiipr.  'iinient  in  the  United  States  Penitentiary  at  Detroit, 
Mich. 


31 


o 

'A   ^ 


32 


Bill  Collins  forfeited  his  bond,  bnt  was  located  at  Pem- 
bina. A  Finn.,  working  as  a  cowboy.  When  Joseph  Anderson, 
DepiiiN  I'.  S.  Alarshal  from  Dallas,  Texas,  attempted  to 
arrest  him,  both  fired  simultaneously,  killing  each  other. 

Albert  Collins  and  "Arkansas  Johnson"  were  killed  re- 
sisting arrest.  Sam  Bass,  with  a  confederate,  was  decoyed 
to  Round  Rock,  Tex.,  by  a  friend,  Jim  Murphy,  to  rob  a 
bank  and  was  surrounded  by  Texas  rangers  and  detectives, 
the  Sheriff  and  his  deputies;  the  effort  to  arrest  them  re- 
sulting in  the  killing  of  Bass  and  his  companion.  Jim 
Murphy,  the  "stool-pigeon,"  escaped  unhurt,  only  to  die 
shortly  after  collecting  his  reward,  and  is  said  to  have  been 
poisoned  by  friends  of  the  Collins.  Frank  Johnson  became 
a  fugitive  from  justice  and  is  supposed  to  have  settled  in 
Montana  under  an  assumed  name. 


In  1888,  Rube  and  Jim  Burrows,  originally  from  Ver- 
non, Lamar  County,  Alabama,  with  W.  L.  Brock,  all  of 
whom  had  been  railroad  employees,  farm-hands  and  cow- 
boys, robbed  the  St.  Louis,  Arkansas  and  Texas  Pacific  Ry. 
in  Texas,  for  which  Brock  was  arrested  and  confessed,  im- 
plicating the  Burrows  brothers.  The  Burrows  boys  re- 
tnnu<l  tM  Montgomery,  Ala.,  where  they  were  arrested. 
While  en  route  to  the  police  station.  Rube  began  firing  and 
escaped.  Jim,  however,  was  overpowered  and  taken  to 
Arkansas  for  trial  for  train  robljery  at  Genowa,  that  state, 
and  died  in  jail. 

Rube  Burrows  kept  in  hiding  until  1893,  when  he  "held- 

33 


W.  L.  BROCK. 
Associate  of  Rube  and  Jim  Burrows. 


34 


up"  a  train  on  the  Illinois  Central  Ry.,  near  Sardis,  Miss. 
He  was  subsequently  killed  by  a  posse,  searching  for  him, 
in  Middle  Florida,  iirock  served  a  short  term  in  the  peni- 
tentiary. 


In  1891,  after  the  train  left  Tower  Grove,  a  suburb  of 
St.  Louis,  two  masked  men  boarded  the  ''blind"  end  of  the 
express  car,  crawled  over  the  tender  and  forced  the  engi- 
neer and  firemen  to  stop  the  train  at  a  cut  near  Old  Orchard, 
where  two  additional  men,  also  masked,  boarded  the  rear 
end  of  the  car.  The  messenger  refused  their  demand  to 
open  the  side  door  of  the  car,  turned  down  the  light,  se- 
cured his  revolver  and  began  defending  his  trust.  Immedi- 
ately a  heavy  explosion  occurred,  tearing  the  car  to  pieces 
and  filling  the  air  with  flying  debris,  a  piece  of  which  struck 
the  messenger  in  the  hip,  knocking  the  revolver  from  his 
hand.  Then  the  robbers,  entered,  opened  the  safe  with 
nitro-glycerine,  taking  the  contents,  $10,000,  and  escaped. 
Co-operating  with  Lawrence  Harrigan,  then  Chief  of  Police, 
and  William  Desmond  of  the  detective  department  of  St. 
Louis,  Mo.,  we  determined  the  *'hold-ups"  to  be  Marion  C. 
Hedgepeth,  a  notorius  Western  outlaw,  James  Francis,  a 
St.  Louis  burglar,  Dink  Wilson,  an  Omaha  burglar,  and 
Adelbert  Sly  of  St.  Joe,  Mo.,  at  one  time  a  driver  for  the 
American  Express  Co.,  and  who  had  stolen  $20,000  from 
them.  We  learned  Sly  had  gone  to  Los  Angeles,  and  there 
Robert  A.  Pinkerton,  aided  by  Detective  Whittaker  of  San 
Francisco  and  Detective  TIawley  of  Los  Angeles  arrested 

35 


MARION  HEDGSPETH. 
Stole  $io,oo3  from  St.  Louis  &  San  Francisco  express. 


36 


him  and  later  the  San  Francisco  ix)Hce,  after  a  desperate 
struggle  arrested  Hedgepeth  in  that  city.  Hedgepeth  and 
Sly  were  returned  to  St.  Louis,  convicted  and  sentenced  to 
20  years  imprisonment.  Sly  is  now  at  Liherty,  but  Hedge- 
])eth.  after  his  release  continued  his  life  of  crimtr. 
[Is  now,  October,  1907,  awaiting  trial  at  Council  Bluffs, 
Iowa,  for  a  safe  burglary  there  on  September  i,  1907.] 
Francis  was  killed  near  Pleasandon,  Kas.,  resistmg  arrest. 
Wilson  shot  and  killed  Detective  Harvey  of  Syracuse,  N.  Y., 
for  which  he  was  electrocuted  at  Sing  Sing  Prison,  N.  Y., 
and  his  brother  Charley,  wlio  \\a^  with  Dink  when  Detec- 
tive Harvey  was  killed,  who  we  located  in  Buffalo,  N.  Y., 
and  caused  lii>  arrest,  wa>  sentenced  to  prison  for  life. 


In  1891,  at  Western  Union  Junction  on  the  Chicago,  Mil- 
waukee &  St.  Paul  R.  R.  not  far  from  Racine,  Wis.,  a  train 
was  "held-up"  and  on  the  express  messenger  refusing  to 
surrender  the  express  car  was  attacked  with  dynamite,  lit- 
erally blowing  the  safe  to  pieces  and  the  messenger  barely 
escaped  with  his  life. 

Later  at  Mankato,  Minn.,  on  the  Xorthern  Pacific  R.  R. 
a  similar  robbery  was  attempted,  d  lie  identity  of  the  "hold- 
ups" in  these  two  robberies  was  unknown,  but  in  the  latter 
case,  two  suspects  ha\in.^  ])urchased  tickets  for  California 
via  Portland,  Ore.,  we.  In  telegraphing  the  numbers  of  these 
tickets  and  descriptions  of  the  suspects  to  our  Portland, 
Ore.,  office  the  suspects  were  put  under  surveillance, 
located  at  \'isalia,  Cal..  and  identified  as  John  and  George 
Sontag,   brothers,    originall\     from    Mankato.    Minn.,    who 


37 


O 

o 


38 


had  joined  Chris  Evans,  an  associate.  Our  watching  of 
them  developed  the  fact  of  their  purchasing  dynamite,  and 
other  circumstances  towards  verifying  the  suspicion  against 
them,  but  not  estabhshing  evidence  to  act  upon,  our  sur- 
veillance was  stopped  for  the  time  being. 

At  Collins  Station,  Fresno  Co.,  Cal.,  August  3,  1892, 
a  Southern  Pacific  R.  R.  train  was  "held-up",  the  express 
car  dynamited  and  $2,300  stolen.  With  the  information  of 
our  previous  investigation  the  railroad  detectives  and  ex- 
press special  agents  established  the  fact  that  the  robbers  were 
the  men  wt  had  followed  to  Visalia,  Cal.,  and  an  attempt 
to  arrest  them  resulted  in  one  of  the  officers  being  killed, 
another  dangerously  wounded,  and  the  bandits  escaping.  A 
regular  man-hunt,  one  of  the  most  exciting  that  ever  oc- 
curred on  the  Pacific  Coast  followed  for  months  through 
the  mountains  of  California,  resulting  finally  in  the  arres'.  of 
George  Sontag,  who,  forty  hours  after  was  sentenced  to  life 
imprisonment  in  the  Folsom,  Cal.,  Penitentiary.  SeverJ 
months  afterwards  John  Sontag  and  Chris  Evans  were  cap- 
tured, after  a  long  and  desperate  fight  with  a  posse,  both 
were  badly  wounded,  Evans  losing  his  right  eye  and  one 
arm. 

John  Sontag  died  in  jail,  soon  after  his  arrest.  Evans 
was  sentenced  to  life  imprisonment,  but  escaped  from  jail 
at  Fresno,  December  28,  1893;  ^^as  recaptured,  February 
18,  1894,  and  is  now  serving  a  life  sentence  in  the  Folsoni, 
Cal.,  prison. 


39 


CHRIS  EVANS. 
Associate  of  Sontag  Bros. 


40 


The  Dalton  brothers.  Rill,  Bob,  Emmctt  and  Grattan, 
committed  a  series  of  robberies  in  Missouri,  Arkansas,  In- 
dian Territory,  Oklahoma  and  California,  from  February, 
1891,  to  May,  1894,  operating  with  Joe  Evans,  ''Texa^ 
Jack,''  Tom  Littleton,  Jim  Wallace,  Charles  White  and  ]wi 
Jones.  They  ''held-up''  a  train  on  the  Southern  Paciiic 
R.  R.  at  Alila,  Tulare  County,  California,  killed  the  express 
messenger  and  fireman ;  '*held-up"  the  Wells  Fargo  Express 
at  Red  Rock,  Indian  Territory,  ''held-up"  a  Missouri,  Kan- 
sas and  Texas  passenger  train  at  Adair,  Indian  Territory, 
securinj^  the  contents  of  the  Pacific  Express  Co.'s  safe. 

At  Cotteyville,  Kansas,  on  October  5,  1892,  one  band 
attempted  to  rob  a  private  bank,  while  the  other  made  a 
similaV  attack  on  the  First  National  lUmk.  The  cashier 
of  the  former  temporized  with  the  bandits  by  telling  them 
the  safe  opened  with  a  time  lock,  and  the  money  could  not 
be  reached  until  ten  o'clock,  giving  time  for  a  raiding  party 
to  be  organized,  resulting  in  the  killing  of  Bob  Dalton,  Joe 
Evans,  ''Texas  Jack,"  Grattan  and  Emmett  Dalton  and  sev- 
eral citizens.  Bill  Dalton,  the  only  member  who  escaped, 
organized  another  gang  and  on  May  23,  1894,  *'held-up"  the 
First  National  Bank  at  Longview,  Texas,  presenting  the  fol- 
lowing note  to  the  president: 

"I  Ionic,   May  27,.'' 
First  Xaii' Mial  liaiik.  Longview. 

This  will  intn^ducc  to  you  Charles  Sprecklcmcyer, 
who  wants  some  money  and  is  going  to  have  it 

W.  &  F." 
aVftcr    the   president    read    the    note,    he    found    Dalton 

41 


o  " 

m 

o 

PQ 


42 


pointing  a  rifle  at  him,  while  a  confederate  stole.  $2,000  from 
the  paying  teller's  cage  and  decamped.  A  posse,  who  pur- 
sued the  robbers,  killed  Jim  Wallace,  one  of  the  band,  the 
other  escaping.  Of  the  stolen  money,  three  ten  dollar  and 
nine  twenty-dollar  bills  were  new^  unsigned  bank  notes  and 
through  these  Bill  Dalton  was  traced  to  Ardmore,  I.  T., 
and  on  June  8,  1894,  was  killed  while  resisting  arrest. 

Nearly  every  member  of  this  gang  'Vlied  with  his  boots 
on. 

After  the  death  of  Bill  Dalton,  Bill  Cook  collected  the 
remnants  of  the  Dalton  gang  and  formed  one  of  the  most 
desperate  and  notorious  bands  of  outlaws,  desperadoes  and 
murderers  in  the  West.  The  band  at  various  times,  in- 
cluding Bill  Cook,  Jim  Cook,  Jim  French,  Bill  Doolin,  Craw- 
ford Crosby,  alias  "Cherokee  Bill,"  ''Buck  Wightman,'* 
"Columbus  Means,"  Thurman  Palding,  alias  "Skeeter,"  Joe 
Jennings,  Charles  Clifton,  Sam  Brown,  George  Newton, 
Perry  Brown,  George  Newcomb,  alias  ''Slaughter  Kid." 
Charles  Pierce,  alias  "Bitter  Creek,"  Tom  Ouarles,  Elmer 
Lucas,  Lou  Gordan,  Curtis  Deason,  Ol  Yantis,  Henry  Mun- 
son,  "Tulca  Jack,"  Dick  Yeager  and  Zip  Wyatt.  Bill,  Tom, 
Jim,  Lulu  and  Rose  Cook  were  half-breed  Cherokee  In- 
dians. 

July  18,  1894,  Bill  Cook,  "Skeeter,"  "Cherokee  Bill," 
Henry  Munson,  Curtis  Deason  and  Elmer  Lucas,  "held-up" 
a  Frisco  train  at  Red  Fork,  Ark.  Munson  was  killed  trying 
to  escape,  but  Deason  was  captured.  The  others  escaped. 
Deason  was  sentenced  to  a  long  term  in  the  penitentiary. 


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44 


July  31,  1894,  ^t  about  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning,  Bill 
Cook,  Elmer  Lucas,  Jack  Star,  "Tulca  Jack"  and  one  other 
rode  into  Chandler,  O.  T.,  *'held-up"  the  Lincoln  County 
Bank,  killed  a  citizen  named  J.  ^I.  ^Mitchell,  who  had  tried 
to  give  the  alarm,  rode  from  the  town  followed  by  a  posse 
who  came  up  with  them  and  a  fifteen-minute  battle  resulted. 
One  of  the  bandits,  Elmer  Lucas,  was  badly  wounded  and 
captured,  the  rest  escaping.  Lucas  was  sentenced  to  15 
years  in  the  penitentiary. 

October  20,  1894,  this  band  wrecked  the  Kansas  City  and 
Memphis  express  at  Corretta,  L  T.,  by  throwing  a  switch 
running  it  into  a  string  of  empty  cars,  marched  the  engineer 
and  fireman  to  the  baggage  and  express  cars,  forced  the 
messenger  to  open  the  door,  but,  as  the  messenger  insisted 
that  the  safe  was  locked  and  could  not  be  opened  until  it 
reached  its  destination,  the  gang  went  through  the  train  and 
obtained  about  $500  from  the  passengers.  While  still  en- 
gaged in  this,  a  freight  train  whistled  nearby  and  the  bandits 
fled. 

October  23,  1894,  at  Watooa,  the  bandits  under  Bill 
Cook's  lead,  drove  every  citizen  to  cover  and  then  robbed 
^very  store  in  town. 

November  13,  1894,  some  of  the  gang  led  by  Bill  Cook, 
^'Cherokee  Bill"  and  Jim  French,  "held-up"  a  Missouri, 
Kansas  and  Texas  train,  at  Wybank,  a  blind  siding,  within 
four  miles  of  Muskogee,  L  T.,  by  side  tracking  the  train. 
They  attempted  to  enter  the  express  and  baggage  cars,  but 
failing,  shot  out  all  the  windows  in  ihc  c:\v<,  riddled  the 
sides  of  the  cars  and  then  robbed  the  passenger^. 


45 


WILLIAM   MINER. 

An  old  time  Pacific  Coast  stage  and  train  robber.     Escaped   Aug.  8,   1907,  from 

Westminster  Penitentiary,  British  Columbia,  where 

he  wasyserving  a  life  sentence. 


46 


November  28,  1894,  Jim  French  and  several  others  at 
Chrotah,  I.  T.,  '*held-up"  nine  people  in  a  store,  plundered 
the  store,  the  bandits  retiring  without  firing  a  shot. 

Little  by  little,  however,  at  the  cost  of  the  lives  of  many 
brave  officers  and  the  expenditure  of  a  large  amount  of 
money,  the  members  of  the  Cook  band  were  exterminated  or 
imprisoned  and  after  the  United  States  Government  had 
offered  $250  each  for  the  capture  of  these  outlaws.  Nov- 
ember 21,  1894,  Jim  Cook  was  sentenced  to  8  years  in  the 
penitentiary  for  murder.  November  22,  1894,  "Skeeter" 
at  Ft.  Scott,  Ark.,  pleaded  guilty  and  was  sentenced  to  the 
penitentiary.  February  12,  1895,  Bill  Cook  in  the  U.  S. 
Court  at  Fort  Smith,  Ark.,  was  sentenced  to  fifty  years  in 
the  N.  Y.  State  Penitentiary  at  Albany,  N.  Y.  January  30, 
1895.  "Cherokee  Bill"  was  captured  at  Nowata,  I.  T.,  after 
he  had  started  to  organize  a  new  band. 

Others  of  these  outlaws  killed  while  resisting  arrest  were 
Dick  Broadwell,  Ol  Yantis,  Charles  Pierce,  alias  "Bitter 
Creek,*'  George  Newcomb,  alias  "Slaughter  Kid,"  Bill  Dool- 
in,  "Tulca  Jack,"  Henry  Munson  and  Zip  Wyatt. 

"Black  Jack"  McDonald,  who  was  originally  one  of  the 
Dalton  gang,  began  operations  in  the  Southwest  in  1896 
with  George  Musgrave,  Bob  Hayes,  Cole  Young,  Bob  Lewis 
and  Sid  Moore,  principally  "holding-up"  general  stores  and 
post  offices  and  killing  those  who  attempted  to  arrest  them. 

August,  1896,  they  unsuccessfully  attempted  to  rob  a 
bank  at  Nogales,  Arizona.  October,  1896,  they  attempted  to 
rob  an  Atlantic  &  Pacific  R.  R.  train  but  a  Deputy  United 
States  Marshal,  who  was  on  the  train,  organized  a  posse, 

47 


killed  Cole  Young  and  the  others  escaped  without  getting 
any  booty.  The  others  were  eventually  killed  resisting  ar- 
rest, ^'Black  Jack,"  the  last  of  the  Mohicans,  so  to  speak, 
being  killed  in  Grant  Co.,  New  Mexico,  in  1897. 


"Old  Bill"  Miner,  who  escaped  from  the  New  West- 
minster Penitentiary,  New  Westminster,  B.  C,  August  8, 
1907,  where  he  was  serving  a  life  sentence  for  the  robbery 
of  the  Canadian  Pacific  R.  R.  train  at  Furrer,  British 
Columbia,  on  the  early  morning  of  May  9,  1906,  in  his  early 
criminal  career  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  single- 
handed  stage  and  train  robbers  who  ever  operated  in  the 
far  West,  always  going  about  his  work  in  a  matter-of-fact 
way,  never  posing  as  a  bad  man,  and  never  taking  human 
life.  He  never  belonged  to  any  organized  band  of  "hold- 
ups," generally  worked  alone  until  later  years  he  picked  up 
others  to  assist  him. 

As  early  as  1869,  he  served  a  term  for  stage  robbery  in 
San  Quentin,  Cal.,  prison.  In  1879,  after  his  release  he, 
with  others,  robbed  the  Del  Norte  stage  in  Colorado,  of 
thirty-six  hundred  dollars.  An  associate,  Leroy,  was  cap- 
tured and  hanged  by  a  Vigilance  Committee,  but  Miner  es- 
caped with  the  booty,  to  Chicago,  then  to  Michigan,  where 
he  posed  as  a  California  capitalist,  until  his  money  was  ex- 
hausted when  he  again  returned  to  Colorado  and  committed 
several  other  "hold-up"  robberies. 

In  1 88 1,  Miner,  Jirh  Crum,  Bill  Miller  and  a  man  named 
Jones,  "held-up"  a  stage  between  Sonora  and  Milton,  Cali- 
fornia.    All  were  captured  except  Jones.     Crum  confessed. 

4H 


Miller  and  MiiK-r  were  >ciUciice(l  to  25  years  each,  Crum  to 
twelve  years.  Miiur  was  released  from  San  Ouentin,  CaL, 
on  June  17,  1901,  and  two  year?  later  on  September  23, 
1903,  with  two  others  he  "held-u])  "  and  n  )bbed  the  Oregon 
Railroad  and  Navigation  passenger  train  No.  6,  at  Mile 
Post  21,  near  Corbett,  Oregon.  One  of  his  companions  was 
badly  wounded.  The  other  was  later  arrested  and  both 
were  sentenced  to  long  terms,  but  ]^Iiner,  for  whom  a  re- 
ward of  $1,300  had  been  offered,  was  not  captured.  ]\Iiner 
on  September  10,  1904.  at  Mission  Junction,  British  Colum- 
bia, "held-up"  the  Canadian  Pacific  Co.'s  railway's  trans- 
continental express,  securing  $10,000  in  gold  dust  and  cur- 
rency. For  his  capture  $5,000  reward  was  offered  by  the 
Government  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  $5,000  by  the 
Canadian  Pacific  and  the  Dominion  Express  Co.  and  $1,500 
by  the  Province  of  British  Columbia.  Rewards  of  $12,800 
seems  to  have  had  no  terrors  to  Miner,  for  on  the  morning 
of  May  9,  1906,  he  again  "held-up''  the  Canadian  Pacific 
Railway  train,  this  time  at  Furrer,  B.  C,  the  robbers  com- 
pelling the  engineer  to  uncouple  the  mail  car  and  haul  it 
a  mile  away,  where  they  rified  it  of  registered  mail.  ^liner 
believed  the  express  packages  were  in  the  mail  car  and 
when  he  found  they  were  not,  he  lost  his  nerve,  abandoned 
the  robbery  and  escaped.  Large  rewards  induced  posses  to 
take  up  the  pursuit.  The  Canadian  Constabulary,  after  a 
fight  in  which  one  of  them  was  wounded,  on  May  14,  1906, 
arrested  Miner,  also  his  confederates,  Louis  Colquhoun  and 
Thomas  Dunn.  Miner  anrl  Dunn  were  given  life  sentences, 
Colquhoun  25  years. 


49 


'■  Black  Bart,"  the 


I '.LACK  BART. 
'  P.  ()."  ^  stage  and  train  i 


50 


Miner  is  said  to  have  originated  the  expression,  "Hands- 
up,"  and  was  one  of  the  first  highwaymen  to  operate  on  the 
Pacific  Coast. 


From  1877  to  1883,  stages  in  the  mountains  of  Califor- 
nia were  *'held-up"  by  a  lone  highwayman,  always  wearing 
a  conical  circus  clown  hat,  an  old  linen  duster  and  a  jute 
bag  about  his  lower  legs. 

At  times,  near  the  intended  ''hold-up",  he  would  arrange 
a  screen  of  jute  bagging  or  canvas,  placing  behind  it  dum- 
mies made  of  slouch  hats  on  sticks  and  all  so  realistic  as  to 
readily  deceive.  While  ordering  the  dummies  not  to  shoot 
until  he  directed  or  there  was  some  sign  of  resistance,  he 
would  request  the  driver  to  please  throw  out  the  box  and 
mail  bags,  the  "box"  being  the  treasure  box  or  safe  of  the 
Wells  Fargo  Express  Co.,  containing  a  large  sum  of  money. 
He  was  always  polite  to  the  passengers,  especially  to  the 
ladies,  and  after  each  robbery  there  would  be  a  few  lines  of 
doggerel  poetry,  signed  "Black  Bart,  the  P.  O.  8."  This  and 
the  handwriting  showed  the  lone  robber  to  be  of  more  than 
ordinary  intelligence,  well  bred,  and  not  of  the  rufHan 
type. 

First  a  mail  coach  in  the  Sierras  was  attacked,  next  he 
would  be  heard  from  in  the  Siskiyou  Mountains,  on  the 
old  trail  into  Oregon,  and  so  on,  altogether  committing 
twenty-three  robberies,  and  for  whose  apprehension,  a  large 
reward  was  offered.  Only  once  did  a  driver  get  a  good 
look  at  him  and  described  him  a-  an  American,  fifty  years 
of  age,  with  long  gray  hair,  thin  face,  deep  set  eyes,  promi- 
nent teeth  and  somewhat  dignified  appearance. 


51 


The  only  record  of  "Black  P3art"  being  shot  at  was  on 
November  3,  1883,,  between  Milton  and  Sonora,  in 
Tiiolomne  County,  about  three  miles  from  Copperopolis, 
Cal.,  on  the  old  mail  road  from  Yosemite.  On  this  particu- 
lar trip,  McConnell,  the  stage  driver,  allowed  a  boy  of  the 
neighborhood,  who  had  a  gun,  to  ride  with  him,  but  the  lad 
got  down  just  before  the  stage  was  stopped  and  had  gone 
into  the  woods.  The  robber  who,  as  the  stage  approached, 
as  was  his  custom,  had  used  powerful  field  glasses  to  de- 
termine if  an  armed  guard  was  aboard,  as  he  "held-up''  the 
stage  asked  the  driver  what  had  become  of  the  man  with 
the  gun.  The  driver  told  him  the  truth,  but  as  ''Bart'' 
started  off  w^ith  the  boxes  and  mail  bags  of  gold  valued  at 
forty- four  hundred  dollars,  also  five  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars  in  coin,  the  boy  returned  and  McConnell  snatching 
the  rifle  from  him,  fired  four  shots  at  the  retreating  robber, 
but  failed  to  hit  him. 

Immediately  after  this,  as  well  as  after  "Bart's"  other 
robberies,  detectives  promptly  explored  the  surrounding 
country,  this  time  near  a  camp  fire,  finding  a  slouch  hat, 
silk  handkerchief  and  a  linen  cuff  with  blood  stains  upon  it, 
the  cuff  having  on  it  a  laundry  mark.  This  was  the  first 
real  clue  and  resulted  in  the  detectives  finding  the  San  Fran- 
cisco laundry  that  had  placed  the  mark  on  the  cuff  and  de- 
termining that  it  belonged  to  one  E.  C.  Bolton.  The  arrev.t 
and  identification  of  **Black  Bart'*  followed.  He  was  also 
known  as  Charles  E.  Benton  and  Charles  E.  Bowles,  had 
lived  at  an  unpretentious  boarding  house  in  San  Francisco, 
passing  as  a  mining  man  and  which  accounted  for  his  oc- 


FRANK  SHERCLIFFE. 
Lone  Highwayman.    Train  bank  and  Faro  bank  Robber. 


53 


casional  absence.  He  pleaded  guilty  to  his  last  robbery, 
but  strenuously  denied  that  he  was  the  ''Black  Bart"  who 
committed  the  others  and  declared  to  the  Court  that  it  was 
only  urgent  necessity  that  drove  him  to  commit  this  crime. 
On  November  17,  1883,  he  was  sentenced  to  six  years  in  the 
prison  at  San  Ouentin,  Cal.  He  originally  came  from  De- 
catur, Ills.,  where  he  had  worked  on  farms,  and  from  where 
in  Company  B,  160  Illinois  Regiment,  served  three  years  in 
the  Civil  War.  He  w^as  known  in  his  regiment  as  ''Wrest- 
ling Charlie,"  and  so  far  as  could  be  learned  outside  of  his 
"hold-ups"  had  led  a  respectable  life,  was  a  teetotaler,  a 
man  of  fine  education,  a  remarkably  good  story  teller  and 
since  his  release  he  has  been  seen  more  or  less  in  honest 
occupations  on  the  Pacific  Coast. 

During  "Black  Bart's"  criminal  career  he  never  took  a 
life  or  injured  a  human  being. 


Early  in  the  evening  of  November  4,  1892,  at  Omaha, 
Frank  Shercliffe,  alias  Sherman  W.  ^Morris,  boarded  a  Sioux 
City  and  Pacific  Railroad  train,  and  as  it  neared  California 
Junction,  Iowa,  completely  disguised  w^ith  a  false  beard,  he 
attacked  William  G.  Pollock,  a  New  York  diamond  mer- 
chant, with  a  bag  of  shot,  until  it  was  broken  open,  then 
seriously  wounding  him  in  the  arm  and  shoulder  with  a 
revolver  ripped  open  his  vest  and  stole  therefrom  unmount- 
ed diamonds  valued  at  twenty  thousand  dollars,  signaled  the 
train  to  stop,  and  escaped. 

As  a  result  of  our  liandling  the  matter  for  the  Jeweler-' 
Protective  Union,  Sherclift'e  was  arrested  and  tried  at  Lo- 


54 


"CAPT."  EUGENE  BUNCH. 
Southern  Express  Robber.     Killed  Evadinj;?  .\rrest. 


55 


gan.   Iowa,  and   >LMUL'nce(l   to    Mwiiiecn   years  in  the   Fort 
Madison,  Iowa,  penitentiary. 

He  is  believed  to  be  the  lone  ''hold-up"  man  who,  during 
1892.  prior  to  the  attack  on  ]\Ir.  Pollock,  robbed  gamblers 
and  proprietors  of  gambling  houses  in  the  Northw^est,  usu- 
ally entering  at  late  hours  of  the  night,  while  all  were  en- 
gaged in  their  games  and  relieving  them  of  such  money 
as  they  had  on  hand. 

He  began  his  career  as  a  criminal  when  a  boy  seventeen 
years  of  age,  by  robbing  a  safe  at  Aurora,  Illinois,  shot  at 
the  officers  who  attempted  to  arrest  him,  but  was  captured. 
Since  then  he  has  been  engaged  in  a  number  of  daring 
robberies  in  the  middle  and  far  West.  Like  the  average 
professional  criminal,  he  squandered  his  ill  gotten  gains, 
but  since  his  release  from  prison  in  1904,  still  young,  but 
broken  in  health  and  prematurely  aged  he  has  married  and, 
seemingly  is  endeavoring  to  lead  an  honest  life. 

In  November ,  1888,  a  United  States  Express  messenger 
was  "held-up"  on  a  train  near  New  Orleans,  La.,  and  robbed 
of  $20,000.  ,  Investigation  proved  the  robber  to  be  Captain 
Eugene  F.  Bunch,  alias  Captain  Gerald,  a  former  newspaper 
editor  of  Gainesville,  Texas. 

Acting  with  the  special  officer  of  the  Southern  Express 
Company,  and  a  local  official,  we  finally  located  Bunch  in 
a  swamp  near  Franklinton,  La.,  where,  on  August  21,  1892, 
he  was  killed  resisting  arrest. 

September  30,  1891,  Oliver  Curtis  Perry  boarded  a 
New  York  Central  R.  R.  train  at  All)any.  X.  Y.,  sawed  an 
opening  through  the  rear  door,  crawled  over  the  freight  to 


OLIVKR  CURTIS  I'EKKV. 
Single  handed  train  robber.     Operated  in  Now  York  State- 


57 


the  centre,  covered  the  messenger  with  a  revolver  and  stole 
five  thousand  dollars  and  some  jewelry,  after  which  nea" 
Utica  he  made  his  escape  by  cutting  the  air  brakes,  thereby 
bringing  the  train  to  a  stop. 

February  21,  1892,  Perry  again  boarded  an  express 
train  near  Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  concealed  himself  on  the  roof 
of  the  express  car  until  the  train  was  in  motion  and  then 
with  a  rope  fastened  to  a  hook  in  the  roof  of  the  car  while 
the  train  was  traveling  fifty  miles  an  hour,  lowered  himself 
to  a  window  and,  covering  the  messenger  with  a  revolver 
ordered  him  to  throw  up  his  hands.  The  messenger  at- 
tempted to  pull  the  bell  cord,  but  Perry  shot  him  in  the 
hand,  the  messenger  following  with  several  shots.  Just  as 
Perry  fired  his  last  shot,  the  train  pulled  into  Lyons  and  he, 
in  attempting  to  escape  drove  the  fireman  and  engineer  from 
a  locomotive  which  stood  on  a  siding,  started  the  engine 
at  full  speed,  but  was  followed  by  railroad  employees  on 
another  locomotive,  who  subsequently  overtook  him  and 
after  considerable  shooting  caused  his  arrest. 

On  May  19,  following  he  was  sentenced  to  49  years  ^\v\ 
three  months  in  the  Auburn,  N.  Y.,  State  Prison,  from 
which  he  escaped  October  22nd,  but  was  recaptured  in  less 
than  24  hours.  Soon  after  showdng  signs  of  insanity  he  was 
transferred  to  the  asylum  for  the  criminal  insane  at  Mar- 
teawan,  from  which  he  escaped  April  10,  1895,  but  four 
weeks  later  was  arrested  by  a  railroad  detective  at  Wee- 
hawken,  N.  J.  This  detective  liad  a  di>])utc  with  the  Super- 
intendent of  the  railroad  about  Perry's  capture,  killed  him 
and  was  hanged  in  Xcw  Jcr-cy   for  liis  crime.     After  hi-, 

58 


return  to  Matteawan  Asylum,  Perry  destroyed  both  eyes 
with  a  saddler's  needle  and  is  now  a  blind  raving  maniac. 
Perry  was  born  in  Amsterdam,  N.  Y. ;  at  fourteen  was  sent 
to  a  State  Reformatory  for  burglary;  afterwards  served  a 
term  at  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  then  went  to  Minnesota,  burglar- 
ized a  store,  served  three  years  in  the  Stillwater,  !Minn., 
prison,  became  a  cowboy,  returned  East  and  imposed  upon 
religious  people  by  pretending  to  reform,  and  finally  com- 
mitted the  "hold-up"  crimes  as  alleged. 


Bert  Alvord,  a  train  robber,  was  once  City  Marshal  of 
Wilcox,  Arizona,  and  Deputy  Sheriff  of  Cochise  County, 
said  to  have  been  a  fearless, ,  diligent  and  conscientious 
officer,  became  a  train  robber  and  "hold-up"  as  he  claimed, 
on  account  of  a  reward  of  $i,ooo  offered  for  the  arrest  of 
a  "hold-up"  which  he  was  not  able  to  collect,  "held-up"  a 
train  and  took  from  the  express  messenger  $i,ooo  declar- 
ing he  had  earned  this  money  and  that  there  was  no  other 
way  to  collect  it,  thereafter  committing  many  robberies,  but 
was  finally  hunted  down  by  the  rangers  and  rurales. 

In  January,  1902,  Alvord  joined  forces  with  Bravo  Juan, 
Augustine  Chicon  and  Bill  Stiles,  Texas  and  Mexican  out- 
laws, working  along  the  border.  Alvord  and  Bravo  Juan 
were  captured  in  the  Sierra  Madre  mountains  of  Sonora, 
Texas,  tried  and  acquitted.  Later  Alvord  and  Stiles  were 
arrested  for  a  train  robbery  at  Cochise.  •  Alvord  was  sen- 
tenced to  two  years  in  the  penitentiary  at  Tombstone,  Ariz., 
but  with  Stiles  awaiting  trial  in  the  same  jail  on  six  indict- 
ments and  thirteen  other  prisoners  on  December  15,   1907,, 


While  brakeman  on  St.  L( 

express  II 


HARRY    SCHWARTZ. 

<  and  vSan  Francisco  Ry.  with  Newton  Watt,  murfk-red 
-t.ii<4er  Kellogcr  Xichols.     Stole  $20,000. 


60 


broke  jail,  this  being  the  second  time  Alvord  and  Stiles 
escaped  ivom  this,  prison ;  on  the  previous  occasion.  Stiles 
seriously  wounding  the  jailer.  Alvord  was  later  recaptured 
and  served  his  time  in  the  Yuma,  Ariz.,  penitentiary  and 
was  released  during  October,  1905. 

Kellogg  Nichols,  a  United  States  Express  messenger, 
was  found  murdered  in  his  car  on  the  Chicago,  Rock  Island 
and  Pacific  R.  R.  train,  at  Morris,  Ills.,  on  the  night  of 
March  13,  1886,  the  safe  open  and  $21,500,  mostly  $100- 
bills,  stolen  therefrom.  My  personal  investigation  at  the 
time,  assisted  by  Frank  Murray,  then  Chief  of  Police,  of 
Joliet,  and  afterwards  for  many  years  one  of  our  Superin- 
tendents, John  T.  Smith,  Chief  Special  Agent  of  the  Chi- 
cago, Rock  Island  and  Pacific  R.  R.  and  other  officers  de- 
veloped that  Nichols  had  been  shot  in  the  shoulder  with  a 
.;^2  calibre  pistol,  a  kind  not  used  by  train  robbers,  and  his 
brains  literally  beaten  out  with  a  car  stove  poker,  which, 
was  returned  to  the  hook  where  it  belonged  and  where  any 
Mi'linaiy  criminal  would  not  have  placed  it  after  making  the 
use  that  was  made  of  it. 

These  circumstances  together  with  being  unfavorably 
impressed  with  the  statements  of  Newton  Watt,  baggage- 
man and  Harry  Schwartz,  front  brakeman  of  the  train,  led 
to  the  suspicion  that  Nichols  was  killed  by  either  Watt  or 
Schwartz  because  Nichols  by  tearing  off  the  mask  of  the 
robber  had  recognized  the  wearer.  The  following  day  on 
the  railroad  tracks  near  Minooka,  between  Joliet  and  Mor- 
ris, where  Nichols  was  last  seen  alive,  was  found  a  mask 

t 

61 


FRED  WHITROCK,  alias  Jim  Cummings. 

Lone  train  robber.     Stole  $is7,ooo  from  St.  Louis  ^:  San  Francisco  express  train. 

Died  recentlv. 


made  from  the  tail  of  an  old  coat  and  which  showed  evi- 
dence of  having  been  torn  from  the  wearer. 

Ample  evidence  of  their  guilt  eventually  obtained  result- 
ing in  their  conviction  and  sentence  to  life  imprisonment. 
Watt  died  in  the  penitentiary,  but  Schwartz's  sentence  being 
commuted  by  Governor  Altgeld,  he  was  released  from  the 
Joliet  penitentiary,  September  2,  1896. 


A  short  distance  out  of  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  October  25,  1886, 
a  lone  highwayman  boarded  a  St.  Louis  &  San  Francisco 
R}-.  train,  pres-ented  a  forged  letter  from  the  Adams  Ex- 
press Co.,  prevailed  on  the  Adams  Express  messenger  to 
open  the  door  of  the  car.  The  robber  then  compelled  the 
messenger,  D.  W.  Fortheringham,  to  open  the  safe  and  de- 
liver the  contents,  $57,000,  to  him,  then  binding  and  gagg- 
ing the -messenger,  left  him  lying  on  the  floor  of  the  car. 

Robert  A.  Pinkerton  and  two  detectives  from  our  Chi- 
cago office,  several  weeks  afterwards  arrested  Fred  Witt- 
rock,  formerly  of  Leavenworth,  Kas.,  for  this  robbery,  who 
then  admitted  that  four  to  five  other  men  were  concerned 
with  him  in  the  crime  and  that  to  each  he  had  sent  a  por- 
tion of  the  stolen  money ;  that  the  robbery  was  conceived  by 
'  I  Taight,  a  fornu  i   rxpress  messenger  and  associated 

V.  iii  iiiin  was  Tho-.  W'r-Awv  of  Chicago.  Aided  by  the  local 
police,  of  his  confc  1'  i;ii(-  w^  arrested  Weaver  in  Chicago 
and  Haight  in  \a^h\  ilK  .  Tenn.,  two  of  Wittrock's  friends 
in  Leavenworth  and  two  in  Kan -as  City,  to  whom  Wittrock 
had  given  some  of  the  -toleii  ni<;iK\   and  a  Chicago  printer 


who  printed  the  forged  letter  head.     A\'e  recovered  90  per 
cent  of  the  stolen  money. 

Wittrock,  Haight  and  \\'eaver  all  pleaded  guilty  and 
were  sentenced  to  long  terms  in  the  ]Missouri  penitentiary. 
Wittrock  served  his  sentence,  returned  to  his  old  home  in 
Leavenworth,  Kas.,  and  died  quite  recently. 


On  the  Mineral  Range  Railway,  Michigan,  at  9:30  A.  M.,. 
September  15,  1893,  ^^  ^  crossing  in  the  woods,  called  Bos- 
ton, in  a  sparsely  settled  countr}^,  masked  men  boarded  the 
locomotive  and  express  car  and  forced  the  express  messen- 
ger to  deliver  to  them  a  package  containing  seventy  thousand 
dollars  in  currency,  the  pay  roll  of  the  Calumet  &  Hecia 
Mining  Co.  As  there  was  no  telegraph  office  at  Boston,  an 
alarm  was  not  given  until  the  train  reached  Calumet,  when 
the  local  authorities  were  notified  and  arrested  Jack  Butler, . 
an  ex-convict,  and  Jack  King,  at  that  time  the  champion 
Cornish  wrestler  of  the  United  States. 

For  the  American  Express  Company,  I  took  charge  of " 
this  investigation,  going  with  the  manager  of  the  company 
and  several  assistants  to  the  scene  of  the  robbery.  Our 
investigation  assisted  by  the  local  authorities  showed  that 
the  robbers  had  used  a  horse  and  buggy  to  escape  with, 
and  of  which  we  obtained  a  good  description  from  the 
natives  thereabouts ;  also  a  close  examination  of  the  foot 
prints  of  the  horse,  showed  he  wore  racing  plates,  instead 
of  the  usual  heavy  shoes  worn  by  horses  of  that  section. 
This  horse  was  subsecjuently  identified  as  ^'Camp  K,"  the 
property  of  a  Red  Jacket,  ^Nfichigan,   saloon-keeper,   from  . 

64 


LliAKlJvS    I.  SHAKCICV. 
Aquia  Creek,  Va.,  Express  Hold-up  robber. 


65 


whom  the  ''hold-ups"  had  obtained  it.  Our  work  resulted  in 
the  additional  arrest  of  La  Liberty,  a  former  railroad  fire- 
man, Dominick  Hogan,  an  American  Express  messenger, 
and  his  brother  Edward  Hogan,  who  had  planned  the  rob- 
bery. La  Liberty  made  to  me  a  confession  that  the  stolen 
money  had  been  placed  in  his  trunk  at.  the  depot,  but  on 
searching  the  trunk  we  found  only  eleven  hundred  dollars. 
It  was  then  determined  that  the  night  depot  master  at  Mar- 
quette, Michigan,  and  a  local  livery  stable  keeper  had  stolen 
the  money  from  La  Liberty's  trunk,  resulting  in  my  re- 
covering altogether  $69,935.00  of  the  $70,000  stolen. 

All  of  these  men  were  convicted  and  sentenced  to  long 
terms  in  the  Michigan  penitentiary. 


In  the  fall  of  1895,  at  Aquia  Creek,  Stafford  County, 
Virginia,  two  men,  shortly  after  the  train  was  under  way, 
boarded  an  express  train,  one  the  express  car  and  the  other 
the  locomotive,  cutting  the  locomotive  and  express  car  from 
the  balance  of  the  train,  forcing  the  engineer  to  take  them 
a  considerable  distance  where  the  express  messenger  was 
overpowered,  the  safe  blown  and  over  ten  thousand  dollars 
stolen,  the  "hold-up"  men  escaping,  notwithstanding  a  battle 
with  a  posse. 

Shortly  afterward  a  stranger  displaying  considerable 
money,  was  arrested  at  Port  Royal,  Virginia,  from  whom 
Robert  A.  Pinkerton,  representing  the  express  company, 
who  was  investigating  the  robbery,  obtained  a  confession. 
The  robber  proved  to  be  Charles  J.,  Searcey,  of  Texas,  and 
he  implicated   Charles   Morgan,   alias   Morganfield,   whose 

66 


PAT  CROWi:, 


67 


arrest  we  brought  about  in  Cincinnati.  Searcey  was  sen- 
tenced to  ten  years  and  ]\Iorganlield  to  seventeen  years  in 
the  Richmond,  Va.,  penitentiary. 


During  1902,  1903,  1904  and  1905,  several  train  rob- 
beries occurred  in  California,  Colorado  and  Oregon.  The 
identity  of  the  robbers  could  not  be  settled  at  the  time  but 
we  eventually  determined  that  they  were  committed  by 
George  and  Edward  Vernon  Gates,  brothers  of  California, 
who  on  March  15,  1905,  at  Lordsburg,  New  Mexico,  with 
rifles  attempted  to  commit  a  series  of  ''hold-up"  robberies 
and  wdio  killed  themselves  when  the  officers  attempted  to 
arrest  them. 


Pat  Crowe,  notorious  as  the  kidnapper  of  Eddie  Cudahy, 
son  of  John  Cudahy,  the  millionaire  Omaha  packer,  for 
which  crime,  through  a  miscarriage  of  justice,  he  was  ac- 
quitted and  afterwards  acknowledged  being  the  abductor, 
pleaded  guilty  to  train  robbery  on  the  Chicago,  Burlington 
and  Quincy  R.  R.  in  1894,  about  which  time  there  were  a 
number  of  attempts  upon  trains  in  the  vicinity  of  St.  Joseph, 
Mo.  Crowe  was  supposed  to  have  the  Taylor  brothers  of 
St.  Joseph  associated  with  him. 


After  these  robberies  we  located  Crowe  in  the  Milwau- 
kee Work-house,  and  had  him  held,  charged  with  a  diamond 
robbery  in  Denver,  Col.  Before  the  extradition  papers 
arrived  he  sent  for  the  officials  of  the  Chicago,  Burlington 
and  Quincy  R.  R.  and  stated  that  he  was  concerned  in  the 

6S 


69 


robberies  near  St.  Joseph.  Certain  parts  of  his  story  ap- 
peared very  improbable  to  me  and  I  went  to  Denver,  made 
arrangements  with  the  poHce  authorities  to  permit  him  to 
plead  to  these  train  robberies  in  Missouri.  The  night  the 
arrangements  w^ere  completed,  Crowe  escaped  from  the  jail. 
Crowe,  after  his  escape,  wrote  me  that  all  the  statements 
made  by  him  were  falsehoods.  Later  we  caused  his  arrest 
in  Cincinnati.  He  was  taken  to  St.  Joseph,  Mo.,  where  he 
pleaded  guilty  and  was  sentenced  to  three  years  in  the  Mis- 
souri States  Prison  at  Jefferson  City,  from  which  he  wrote 
letters  to  the  railroad  officials  and  myself,  threatening  to 
kill  all  who  had  to  do  with  his  prosecution. 

When  his  sentence  expired  in  Missouri,  Crowe  was  re- 
turned to  Denver  for  the  diamond  robbery,  but  through 
friends  it  is  claimed  he  compromised  the  matter. 

Crowe  has  lately  written  a  book  telling  how  he  com- 
mitted some  of  his  crimes.  He  claims  he  now  intends  to 
atone  for  all  the  crimes  he  ever  committed  by  demonstrat- 
ing to  the  young  the  folly  of  criminal  life. 

He  was  lately  tried  for  robbery  in  Council  Bluffs,  but 
acquitted. 


One  of  the  most  notorious  bands  of  train  robbers  and 
bank  "hold-ups"  who  operated  in  the  West  and  Southwest, 
from  Wyoming  to  Texas  from  1895  to  1902,  was  known 
as  ''the  Wild  Bunch."  After  each  robbery  they  would 
hide  in  the  "Hole  in  the  Wall"  country  of  Wyoming,  and 
after  the  excitement  had  blown  over  would  return  to  then 
headquarters  in  small  cities  of  Texas. 

This  band  from  time  to  time  included  Tom  Ketcham, 
alias  "Black  Jack,"  leader,  wlio  was  lianged  at  Clayton,  New 


^   "\  5 


71 


Mexico,  April  26,  1901,  for  killing  Sheriff  Edward  Farr,  of 
Whalensburg,  New  ]\Iexico,  who  was  attempting  to  arrest 
him  for  a  train  ''hold-up." 

William  Carver,  alias  ''Bill"  Carver,  second  leader, 
killed  April  2,  1901,  while  resisting  arrest  in  Texas  for  a 
murder  committed  at  Sonora. 

Sam  Ketcham  died  June  24,  1900,  in  the  Sante  Fe,  New 
Mexico,  penitentiary,  of  a  wound  inflicted  by  a  posse  of 
officers  attempting  to  arrest  him  for  the  robbery  of  the 
Colorado  Southern  R.  R.  Co.  at  Cimarron,  New  Mexico. 

Elza  Lay,  alias  McGuinness,  is  now  serving  a  life  sen- 
tence in  the  Sante  Fe,  New  Mexico,  penitentiary  for  par- 
ticipation with  "Black  Jack"  Ketcham  in  the  Cimarron  train 
robbery. 

Lonny  Logan  and  Harvey  Logan,  alias  ''Curry  broth- 
ers." Lonny  was  killed  at  Dodson,  Mo.,  February  28,  1900, 
while  resisting  arrest. 

George  Curry,  alias  "Flat  Nose  George,"  third  leader, 
killed  near  Thompson,  Utah,  April  15,  1900,  resisting  ar- 
rest by  a  Sheriff's  posse. 

Bob  Lee,  alias  Bob  Curry,  now  serving  a  ten-years'" 
sentence  in  the  Rawlins,  Wyoming,  State  Penitentiary,  for 
the  robbery  of  the  Union  Pacific  train  at  Wilcox,  June  2, 
1899. 

Among  the  bank  and  train  robberies  committed  by  the 
"Wild  Bunch"  in  recent  years  were :  Butte  County  Bank, 
member  American  Bankers'  Association,  Belle  FourchCj 
South  Dakota,  June  28th,  1897. 

Union  Pacific  Express  train  "hold-up."  Wilcox,  Wyom- 
ing, January  2d,  1899. 

72 


73 


Union  Pacific  Express  train  "hold-up,"  Tipton,  Wyo- 
ming, August  29th,  1900.  About  1900,  after  these  robberies^ 
under  the  leadership  of  Harvey  Lv:)gan,  alias  ''Kid"  Curry, 
the  band  included  O.  C.  Hanks,  alias  "Camila"  Hanks,  alias 
"Deaf  Charlie;"  George  Parker,  alias  ''Butch"  Cassidy; 
Harry  Longbaugh,  alias  "Sundance  Kid;"  and  Ben  Kil- 
Patrick  alias  "The  Tall  Texan."  A  part  of  this  band  on 
September  19,  1900,  at  the  noon  hour,  "holding-up"  the 
officials  with  rifles  and  revolvers,  robbed  the  First  National 
Bank,  Winnemucca,  Nev.,  a  member  of  the  American 
Bankers'  Association,  of  $32,640  in  gold. 

July  3,  1901,  Logan,  Cassidy,  Longbaugh,  "Will"  Carver,. 
Ben  Kilpatrick,  "Deaf  Charlie  Jones,"  alias  Hanks,  at  Wag- 
ner, Montana,  "held-up"  a  Great  Northern  Express  train, 
securing  $40,500  of  unsigned  bills  of  the  National  Bank 
of  Montana,  and  the  American  National  Bank  of  Helena,. 
Mont.,  and  for  which  Ben  Kilpatrick,  alias  "The  Tall 
Texan,"  was  arrested  by  the  police  in  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  No- 
vember 5,  1901,  with  a  number  of  the  unsigned  stolen  bills 
in  his  possession.  He  was  sentenced  to  fifteen  years  in  the 
Columbus,  Ohio,  penitentiary,  since  transferred  to  the 
United  States  Penitentiary  at  Atlanta,  Ga.  In  Kilpatrick's 
room  of  the  Laclede  Hotel,  the  police  arrested  Laura  Bul- 
lion, a  companion  of  Kilpatrick,  as  she  was  leaving  with  a 
satchel  containing  several  of  the  unsigned  bills.  She  was 
convicted  of  being  an  accomplice  and  sentenced  to  two  years 
and 'six  months  in  the  Missouri  Penitentiary,  at  Jefferson. 

December  13,  1901,  at  Knoxville,  Tennessee,  two  police- 
men who  attempted  to  quiet  a  pistol  fight  over  a  game  of 
pool  were  shot  by  one  of  the  participants,  a  stranger  who 

74 


K 

o 

w 

to 

o 

n 

o 

»• 

►T3 

- 

> 

n 

» 

p 

?: 

afterward  ''held-up"  the  occupants  of  the  saloon,  backed 
out  of  the  rear  door  and  jumped  thirty  feet  into  a  railroad 
cut,  but  was  eventually  traced  and  arrested  in  an  exhausted 
condition  from  cold,  exposure  and  injury  from  his  jump. 
We  subsequently  identified  this  man  as  Harvey  Currey, 
alias  Harvey  Logan.  Logan  was  convicted  and  sentenced  to 
a  term  of  twenty  years  in  the  United  States  Penitentiary  at 
Columbus,  Ohio,  for  uttering  bank  notes  stolen  at  Wagner 
on  which  notes  the  signatures  had  been  forged.  On  Novem- 
ber 29,  1902,  while  awaiting  transfer  to  that  institution,  he 
made  his  escape  by  ''holding-up"  the  guards  in  the  Knox- 
ville  jail;  fleeing  to  the  mountains  on  horseback.  He  has 
not  been  recaptured. 

O.  C.  Hanks,  alias  ^'Camila''  Hanks,  of  Texas,  another 
one  of  this  band,  in  Nashville,  Tenn.,  on  October  2.y,  190T, 
offered  a  merchant  one  of  these  notes,  circulars  describing 
which  had  been  sent  by  us  broadcast  throughout  the  United 
States.  The  merchant  became  suspicious  and  telephoned  the 
police  who  responded  quickly,  but  Hanks,  noting  what  oc- 
curred, quickly  drew  a  revolver,  ''held-up"  the  officer  tem- 
porarily, jumped  into  an  ice  wagon  and  forcing  out  the 
driver  drove  rapidly  down  the  street ;  abandoned  the  wagon 
and  at  the  point  of  his  revolver  captured  a  buggy  and  in 
this  escaped  through  the  marshes  to  the  Cumberland  River, 
where  he  forced  two  negroes  to  row  him  across  in  a  boaJ: 
and  was  lost  trace  of. 

On  April  17,  1902,  he  was  killed  by  officers  in  the  streets 
of  San  Antonio,  Texas,  while  resisting  arrest.  In  1892, 
Hanks  and  Harry  Longbaugh  ''held-up"  a  Northern  Pacific 
train  in  Big  Timber,  AFontana,   for  which  Hanks  was  ar- 

76 


ETTA  PLACiv. 

Mrs,  Kid  Longbough. 

of 

"Wild     I'.iuirli."- 


o 


78 


rested,  convicted  and  sentenced  to  ten  years  in  the  Deer 
Lodge  Penitentiary,  from  which  institution  he  was  released 
April  30,  1901,  rejoining  his  old  companions  in  "hold-up'* 
robberies. 

"Butch"  Gassidy  with  Harry  Longbaugh  and  Etta  Place, 
a  clever  horsewoman  and  rifle  shot,  fled  to  Argentine  Re- 
public, South  America,  where  they,  it  is  said,  have  been 
joined  by  Logan.  Being  expert  ranch  men  they  engaged 
in  cattle  raising  on  a  ranch  they  had  acquired,  located  on 
a  piece  of  high  table  land  from  which  they  commanded  a 
view  of  25  miles  in  various  directions,  making  their  capture 
practically  impossible.  During  the  past  two  years,  they 
committed  several  "hold-up"  bank  robberies  in  Argentina 
in  which  Etta  Place,  the  alleged  wife  of  Harry  Longbaugh, 
it  is  said,  operated  with  the  band  in  male  attire.  We  advised 
the  Argentina  authorities  of  their  presence  and  location,  but 
they  became  suspicious  of  preparations  for  their  arrest,  fled 
from  Argentine  Republic  and  were  last  heard  from  on  the 
Southwest  Coast  of  Chili,  living  in  the  wild  open  country. 


Edward  Estelle,  alias  "Conn.  Eddie,"  George  Gordon, 
alias  "Brooklyn  Blacky,"  William  Browning,  alias 
"Browney,"  Thomas  Clark,  alias  "Pa.  Butch"  and  Johnny 
Bull,  all  "yegg"  men,  on  August  5,  1902,  "held-up"  a  train 
of  the  Chicago,  Burlington  and  Quincy  R.  R.,  near  Marcus, 
Ills.,  after  subduing  the  engineer,  fireman  and  conductor, 
and  shooting  up  and  down  the  railroad  track  to  intimidate 
the  passengers,  secured  three  thousand  dollars  from  the 
Adams  Express  Company's  safe  in  the  baggage  car. 

79 


<;  73 
Q   o 

o  :r 


80 


George  Gordon,  alia-  '  I '.r(><  )klyn  Blacky,"  approaching: 
from  the  front  of  the  locomotive  was  mistaken  for  a  rail- 
road man  and  shot  in  the  thigh  by  Estelle,  who,  when  he 
discovered  he  had  woinided  a  member  of  the  gang,  en- 
deavored to  have  Gordan  flee  with  him,  but  on  the  latter 
pleading  that  he  was  too  badly  wounded,  Estelle,  uttering 
an  oath  and  telling  him  that  he  would  not  be  left  to  squeal 
on  anybody,  blew  Gordon's  brains  out  and  then  wanted  to 
burn  Gordon's  bQdy  in  the  fire  box  of  the  engine,  which 
Clark  prevented. 

We  identified  Gordon's  body,  found  on  the  railroad? 
tracks  and  this  materially  aided  us  in  establishing  the  iden- 
tity of  the  others  of  the  ''hold-ups."  We  located  the  gang: 
at  Memphis,  where,  acting  with  the  police,  we  arrested 
Fstelle  and  Clark.  Browning,  alias  "Browney,"  was  shot 
and  killed  at  McCloud,  Texas,  while  attempting  to  rob  a 
bank,  the  owner  of  which  took  Browning's  pistol  from  him, 
killing  him  with  it.  Clark  and  Estelle  were  sentenced  to  life 
imprisonment  in  the  Joliet,  111.,  States  Prison. 


A  gang  of  ''yegg"  nun  "lield-up"  a  through  train  of  the 
Illinois  Central  Railroad  near  Harvey,  111.,  on  the  night  of 
August  I,  1904,  with  revolvers,  compelling  the  passenger^ 
to  deliver  their  money  and  valuables.  These  "hold-ups" 
were  traced  to  a  St.  Louis  lodging  house  by  St.  Louis  and 
Kansas  City  police  detectives,  who  arrested  one  man  as  he 
left  the  house.  The  detectives  on  entering  the  house  to 
arrest  William  Bruce  Morris  and  Albert  Rosenauer  were 
attacked  by  these  criminals  and  a  fierce  battle  ensued.  Both 
rrimliinU  were  killed  hnt  nr)t  before  they  killed   Detective 


WILLIAM  BR()\VXIX(;. 
Yegg  Ivxpress  "Mold  ujj." 


82 


John  J.  Shea  and  Special  Officers  Thomas  F.  Dwyer  an.l 
James  A.  McCluskey.  Morris  in  an  ante  morten  statement 
confessed  to  the  IlHnois  Central  "hold-up" ;  also  to  an  at- 
tempted  "hold-up"  of  a  Chicago,  Rock  Island  and  Pacific 
train  near  Leets,  Iowa,  July  29,   1904. 


Although  the  "hold-up"  men  have  usually  been  successful 
in  their  "holding-up"  of  stages,  trains  and  banks,  there  have 
been  occasional  instances  where  the  "tables  were  turned"  on 
them. 

One  of  these  was  near  Gilliam,  Missouri,  shortly  afte: 
midnight,  Sunday,  December  26,  1906,  when  a  lone  robber, 
who  had  boarded  the  train  at  Slater,  Mo.,  compelled  the 
sleeping  car  porter  and  the  train  conductor  to  accompany 
him  through  the  cars,  the  porter  awakening  the  passengers 
in  the  Pullman  sleepers,  collecting  their  valuables  and  hand- 
ing them  over  to  the  robber.  As  the  train  reached  Glasgow, 
Mo.,  the  next  stop  for  the  train,  the  robber  disappeared,  but 
while  the  conductor  was  reporting  the  robbery  to  a  tele- 
graph operator,  the  "hold-up"  by  signal  to  the  engineer 
started  the  train,  although  the  conductor  succeeded  in  having 
it  stopped  and  informing  the  engineer  of  what  had  occurred 
started  through  the  train,  when  he  met  the  porter,  the  flag- 
man and  the  "hold-up"  man,  who  under  the  "hold-ups" 
direction  were  continuing  to  relieve  the  passengers  of  their 
valuables.  The  robber  agaiji  forced  the  conductor  to  be- 
come a  member  of  the  "hold-up"  party.  On  reaching  the 
last  car,  the  "hold-up"  locked  the  flagman  and  porter  in  the 
ladies*  toilet  and  started  to  take  the  plunder  fn^ii  the  ilag- 


V5 

man's  hat.  Elias  B.  Haywood,  the  conductor,  watching 
what  was  occurring,  found  the  ''hold-up"  robber  off  his 
guard,  grappled  with  him  and  both  wrestled  about  the  car 
floor,  but  finally  the  robber  released  himself  from  the  con- 
ductor's grasp  and  disappeared  out  of  the  door  on  the  plat- 
form, the  conductor  firing  several  shots  after  him  with  the 
robber's  revolver  which  the  conductor  had  captured  during 
the  struggle.  The  conductor  believed  the  robber  had  jumped 
or  fallen  from  the  train  which  was  running  at  forty  miles 
an  hour,  but  on  going  on  the  car  platform,  found  the  ''hold- 
up"  man  crouching  on  the  lower  steps,  gave  him  a  severe 
beating,  pulled  him  back  into  the  car  and  held  him  until  the 
train  pulled  in  at  Armstrong,  Mo.,  where  the  police,  having 
been  notified  by  the  Glasgow  operator,  were  in  waiting. 

The  robber  gave  his  name  as  Jesse  Clyde  Rumsey,  and 
claimed  that  his  brother  "held-up"  the  Chicago  passenger 
train  near  Glasgow,  Mo.,  on  November  8,  1906,  at  which 
time  a  similar  robbery  was  committed,  and  from  whom  he 
received  his  instructions  how  to  operate. 

What  I  have  maintained  that  no  crime  pays  and  that  95 
per  cent  of  criminals  die  in  debt  and  frequently  in  want  is 
most  aptly  illustrated  by  the  history  of  the  "Hold-up"  Rob- 
ber." 

I  know  of  few  train  robbers  or  "hold-ups"  alive  and  out 
of  prison  to-day.  Only  in  a  very  limited  number  of  in- 
stances are  these  in  comfortable  circumstances  and  from 
honest  means  only  after  giving  up  their  lives  of  crime. 

Crime  does  not  pay! 


^4 


